Comprehensive study on low-frequency noise characteristics in surface channel SOICMOSFETs and device design optimization for RF ICs

Low-frequency (LF) noise, a key figure-of-merit to evaluate device technolo gy for RF systems on a chip, is a significant obstacle for CMOS technology, especially for partially depleted (PD) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS due to the well-known kink-induced noise overshoot, While the de kink effect c an be suppressed by either using body contact technologies or shifting towa rd fully depleted (FD) operation, the noise overshoot phenomena still resid es at high frequency for either FD SOI or poor body-tied (BT) SOI CMOSFETs. In this paper, floating body-induced excess noise in SOI CMOS technology i s addressed, including the impact from floating body effect, pre-de kink op eration, and gate overdrive, followed by the proposal of a universal LF exc ess noise model. As the physical mechanism behind excess noise is identifie d, this paper concludes with the suggestion of a device design methodology to optimize LF noise in SOI CMOSFET technology.